


Happy In My Heartache

by RiverSoul



Category: House M.D., The Event, The X-Files
Genre: Aliens, Ask if it gets too complicated, F/M, Hybrids, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Plot, Submarine Really, it'll be fun I swear... here are some cookies, just go with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:47:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3180938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiverSoul/pseuds/RiverSoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A case at the Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Princeton, New Jersey, strangely reminds Mulder of a long-lost lover. A lover who wasn't quite human...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, you have read correctly, this is a X-Files/House crossover. No, you don't have to know anything about The Event as I've only stolen one character from the show (Sophia) and I will describe her in detail (If you know Kerry Weaver from Emergency Room, though, it's the same actress and Sophia is about as bossy and bitchy as Kerry, if not worse XD). I might add characters and pairings as I'm not sure where I'm exactly going with this. Also, I haven't finished the X-Files yet, so please excuse me if there are any contradictions to the show! But enough talk, let's start the action:

Fox was staring out of the window, deep in thought. The sun was shining and despite the cold it was a beautiful January day. Even though there was nothing special about this day, it reminded him of this January day three years ago. He had been happy back then, so hopeful, not knowing that he was living on borrowed time. Since then he has learnt that hope was his biggest enemy. That being lonely was still preferable to being heart-broken. So when Mulder was reckless during cases, it was because he felt like he had nothing to lose, that he had already lost everything. Of course he knew that this was not quite true, that there were moments which were worth living for, but sometimes he needed someone like Scully to remind him of that. 

Not that there was anyone like Scully. But Mulder tried not to think too much about how perfect she was for him. Cause hope could be destroyed, dreams could be shattered. But if he never thought of her as a lover, as a girlfriend, as a wife, if he was just contend with her being there, he would be fine, great even.

Except when the memories haunted him. Mulder had never really accepted that his sister was gone, even when it had become clear that his hope to ever see her again was in vain and would only be used by his enemies to target him. But this was nothing compared to the certainty that he would never see HER again and that he could never even talk about her to anyone, not even to Scully. 

She had been the most beautiful, the most gentle and the most understanding woman Mulder had ever met. And yet he had known from the beginning that something was “wrong” with her. Because women just weren’t into him, and even if they were at the beginning, they were soon scared off by his obsession with the supernatural. She had been different, though, Laelynn, daughter of Sophia. She had not only accepted him, but also never questioned his behaviour, his job or his obsessions. 

But then it had turned out that she was part of one of his obsessions: aliens. Laelynn was a human-alien hybrid and, other than her two sisters, Kerensa and Fayanna, the only hybrid alive. Sophia, her mother, had only come to earth for a short period of time, and different from what Mulder had expected, she hadn’t been part of an experiment but had carried out experiments herself. One of the experiments was creating human-alien hybrids. And as aliens – other than humans – didn’t force their people to participate in experiments and not enough aliens had volunteered, Sophia had ended up carrying out experiments on herself. However, she had been found out by the US government and therefore had to return to her home planet and abandon her three daughters. 

Kerensa and Fayanna had been adopted by humans and soon adapted to live among humans. Laelynn, however, had switched from foster parents to foster parents and was never quite accepted as one of them. Therefore, she had shut herself off and by the time she came off age she had become just as much of a "freak" as Mulder. It was therefore only natural that they would end up together. In an ideal world, they would have gotten old together without anyone ever being the wiser. But where there were experiments, there were documents and where there were documents, there were people to find them. 

Mulder’s first instinct had been to protect Laelynn and if this wasn’t possible, to go with her, wherever this might be. However, it soon turned out that the beautiful hybrid could not be protected and that she had to go where no human could follow her. Mulder had begged Sophia to take him with her, but the alien mother was, like any other mother, above all interested in the safety of her children. And she could neither trust any human nor protect her much smaller race against humans, were they ever to find out how to get to her planet. Laelynn was as stubborn as her mother and wanted to stay with her lover despite the danger to her life, but in the end it was Mulder who ran from her so that she could return to safety. It left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth to know that his lover's name, Laelynn, meant nothing else than "Hope".


	2. The Case

Scully’s confusion was evident when she handed Mulder the file of their new case. “I'm not sure if some people are aware of what we actually do in here,” she remarked. 

Mulder leafed through the file and soon found the reason for his colleague’s annoyance: Apparently, the case was about an especially high amount of cancer patients at the Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Princeton, New Jersey. Under normal circumstances, Mulder would have sent the file back to the department responsible for transferring it to them, with the sarcastic remark that despite his nickname “spooky” they weren't wonder healers but in fact FBI agents and weren't able to heal cancer. However, the data in this file came from James E. Wilson, the head of oncology he had recently read a very interesting article from. In his article, the doctor had sounded rather down-to-earth and not like someone who would look to miracle workers (or FBI agents for that matter) to heal his patients. 

So Mulder started reading the file more closely and there really seemed to be something strange about it. Patients who came into the hospital with any kind of minor ailment were diagnosed with cancer after staying at the hospital for one to three days. In most cases the cancer was end stage, even if the patients had gone to regular check-ups for all of their lives. While some kinds of cancer, like stomach cancer, sometimes went unnoticed for a long time, the patients in these cases suffered from lung cancer or had breast tumors which were usually diagnosed much earlier because of their symptoms. The situation had become so severe that the whole hospital was about to be shut down, even though specialists couldn’t find any substances in the building which could have caused these cancer “outbreaks”. As patients couldn't have been “infected” (as it would have been the case with other diseases), this kind of aggressive cancer could only have come from a laboratorial or even extraterrestrial source and was therefore well into the field of the X-Files. 

From the frown on Scully’s face while she was reading, Mulder could see that she had come to the same conclusion. “Whatever this is, this is sick”, Scully remarked. “Someone is purposely infecting patients with cancer, to what? Test a theory? Experiment with a vaccination?” 

“Why do you think it’s on purpose? Some of this… whatever it is… could have gotten out of a laboratory,” Mulder replied. 

“Just look at the file!”, Scully replied and held up a certain page, “This is ethnic cleansing!”

Mulder looked at the page again and wondered why he hadn’t realized it before: Most of the patients with the new aggressive form of cancer had been marked as either “Muslim”, “Jewish”, “Hispanic”, or “Asian”, some of them as “agnostic”, but none of them was a white American Christian. Taking this into consideration, the “infections” seemed to be on purpose indeed. 

“We’ll go to Princeton”, Mulder decided. He had to see the situation for himself, talk to some patients and maybe with Doctor Wilson. 

“At least we don’t have to worry about safety measures this time”, Scully said, “white and Christian as we are, we should be safe.” 

Mulder snorted. It was certainly debatable if he counted as “Christian”. But then something else struck him. He opened the file again. “Does it say in here if Doctor Wilson is white and Christian?” 

Scully frowned. “He probably is, but I’m sure he didn’t introduce himself that way.”

Mulder laughed, but digged for the magazine in which he had read Doctor Wilson’s article in, after he couldn’t find the required information in the file. When he found the magazine, he leafed through it until he found the article.   
“What are you doing?”, Scully asked.

“The guy wrote an article and I think… ah there it is,” Mulder answered and quoted “Religion can be an aspect when talking to a cancer patient and growing up with a Jewish mother and a Christian father, I know enough about both of those religions, but would not consider myself competent to talk to a Muslim end term cancer patient, for example, should the need arise.”

“So?”, Scully asked, “If his father is Christian, he could be either Christian or Jewish.”

“No, children of Jewish parents always have the mother’s denomination,” Mulder explained. “Yet, he didn’t get sick… therefore, whoever did this doesn't hate Jews enough to endanger the whole medical system.”

“But the hospital will be shut down. Certainly, any intelligent person could have foreseen this. And stupid people usually don’t manage to experiment with aggressive forms of diseases without causing an epidemic,” Scully countered.

Her colleague nodded. “So either he is in danger or he caused this, somehow... at any rate we'll have to go to Princeton to investigate.”

Scully sighed. “And here I was thinking I could spend the weekend in Washington for once.”

While his colleague went to get a change of clothes (Mulder always had one in his office, just in case), Mulder booked a flight and hotel rooms, then went on to re-read the article. It was about how to help end term cancer patients to deal with the fact that they were dying and making their path as easy as possible, if there was such a thing as an “easy” death. A man who wrote something like this wouldn’t purposely make patients sick, Mulder decided. And why would he want to get rid of Jews if he himself was one? On the other hand, he could be a "carrier", but since when did cancer spread like an infectious disease? 

Experiments on Jews made Mulder think of Nazi Germany, though. On the off-chance this might lead somewhere, he checked the internet for German residents or trainees at the Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, but nada. Of course Nazis didn't have to be German, if it was them who did this. He checked for nationalist groups in New Jersey, but even though the number of “hate” groups was comparably higher than in any other state, neo-Nazis were the only ones who were against Jews and he couldn't find any connection to the Plainsboro-Teaching Hospital. "Not hiding in plain sight, then, are you," Mulder murmured. 

For some reason, this case was starting to get to him. Of course, it was horrible for all patients if someone had used them for experiments and risking their death in the process or if someone had simply killed them off with cancer, but to kill Jews seemed especially horrible. If Mulder had any religion, he would probably be Jewish, as he most identified with the Jew's suffering as a race. While other religions had their dark periods or even whole dark ages in which they killed people of other denominations, the Jewish religion never had been the dominant one. And even Jews born today who hadn't lived at the time of the Holocaust would still hear the stories from their parents or grandparents. And if there weren’t any stories, there was the silence. Mulder knew everything about the silence, about words not spoken of a common suffering, about something missing in one’s life, even if someone didn’t exactly know what this missing thing was. 

If Mulder’s sister was alive and with him today, he might have never joined the X-Files, he might be just as miserable in a boring office job by now or as a mindless tool of the FBI in any other division. He might not even have liked his grown-up sister. And yet he missed her and he would give everything to get her back. Knowing that this wasn’t possible, though, he had started resenting everybody with a happy family life, only to then start to resent himself for his bitterness. Laelynn had been his only hope to found a happy family himself, or at least that’s how he felt about it now. And it wasn’t just that this chance had been taken from him. But maybe he could solve this case and bring a little more justice to this world. For the Jews and everyone else who had died. And for Doctor Wilson, who had seen so many die without being able to do anything about it.


	3. Doctor Wilson

The Plainsboro Teaching Hospital seemed just like any other hospital: hectic, loud and full of people, all of them either openly suffering or openly annoyed. Scully and Mulder asked a triage nurse where he could find the oncology department and was told that it was on the third floor. After only barely avoiding to be crushed by a gurney with an emergency patient on it, the two FBI agents managed to squeeze into an elevator and went two floors up, where they found the oncology department very quiet and with far less people than in the ER downstairs. 

Mulder had to think of the growing number of people dying of cancer every year, especially in the US, and had to suppress. This whole wing was full of people dying or waiting to die. Taking this into consideration, he certainly preferred the chaos of the ER downstairs to the almost eerie silence up here. 

They found Doctor Wilson’s office, Scully knocked and they were asked in. When they entered the room, the atmosphere suddenly changed. The office was bright as the rest of the oncology wing, the walls a light green, but with the wooden furniture it seemed less sterile and far more homey. There was a plant in the corner, some movie posters on the wall and a teddy bear on one of the shelves, which made Mulder smile. 

Doctor Wilson, who had gotten up, and had offered them a seat after introductions had been made, again laid the sudden cases of end term cancer out for them, answering to questions when specific details weren’t clear. Mulder let Scully do the talking and used the opportunity to take a closer look at the doctor: With his broad shoulders, dark suit and friendly face, Doctor Wilson gave off an air of stability and confidence. Mulder suspected that even an end term cancer patient could find some comfort in those soft brown eyes. And the way the doctor talked about the cases made it sound like he really cared about his patients, no matter how hopeless their cases might be, but that he didn't pity them in any way which might be uncomfortable for them. 

“Do you have any more questions?”, Doctor Wilson asked and Mulder snapped out of his reverie. 

“Yes, in fact, I do,” he said, “Have you been travelling lately?”

“Not for more than a year, no,” Doctor Wilson answered. 

“No holiday, family visits…?,” Mulder specified. Certainly being the head of oncology made enough money to go on a vacation every now and then. 

“I try to avoid travelling when possible,” Wilson explained, “And I can’t afford it, really, my patients need me. And all of my family lives in New Jersey.”

Mulder nodded. He understood better than anyone how important it was to put your work over anything else, even if he hadn’t expected the notion in the head of a hospital department. Doctors, especially well earning ones, were in his experience usually more interested in golf, expensive holidays and beautiful women than in the well-being of their patience. Which might be one of the main reasons why the US health system was doing so badly. But this was neither the place not the time for thoughts like that.

“Have you had contact to any medical researches or have you done any research yourself?,” Mulder continued to ask.

“I’m not active in the research field, no,” Wilson answered, “and while there is some research going on in the Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, it is neither in the field of cancer nor am I in close contact with any researchers in the facility.”

“Who are you in contact then?,” Mulder asked, smiling.

Wilson frowned. “Excuse me?"

“I think he means which doctors and nurses you usually work with or are in contact with during your usual working day at the hospital,” Scully explained. 

Mulder couldn’t suppress a grin. He could have put the question differently, of course, but then he would have missed the annoyed glance Scully gave him after finishing her explanation. 

“Oh, of course,” Wilson said and hurried to explain: “Well, I'm usually seeing patients in my office, so I'm not in contact with many nurses. Sometimes, I'm visiting patients at their beds, though, especially children, elderly people and end term patients. But even then, interaction with nurses or other doctors is only necessary in emergencies. However, I’m sometimes called by other departments for cancer consultations, mostly the Diagnostic’s Department…”

“Diagnostic’s department, what’s this?,” Scully asked. 

“It takes care of especially complicated cases,” Wilson explained, “usually when it's not clear what the patient is actually suffering from.”

“Oh, so it’s the hospital’s X-Files!,” Mulder exclaimed. 

“Exactly,” Wilson smiled.

“Who's the head of that department?," Mulder asked, "I would like to speak to him."

“That’s Doctor Gregory House,” Wilson said, “He’s actually also the doctor I mostly work with."

“Great,” Mulder said and wrote the name down. 

Scully frowned at him, then turned back to Doctor Wilson: “Do you also help out in the ER sometimes? I’ve heard that doctors sometimes do that in bigger hospital, even if they are not ER docs.”

“I used to do that,” Wilson explained, “but I haven’t done so for a year now. The oncology department has kept me pretty busy.” He smiled as if to say he was sorry he couldn’t help with emergencies downstairs as well. 

“Ok, speaking of busy, if you don’t have any more questions, Mulder, I would like to start with interviewing the patients now," Scully said. 

“No, no more questions,” Mulder answered Scully’s question, then turned to Wilson: “Thank you for your time, doctor.”

“Thank you," Wilson replied, "and don't hesitate to contact me again if you have any more questions." 

They shook hands again and when Doctor Wilson took Mulder’s hand, the FBI agent looked up and somehow ended up looking the other man deep into the eyes. They both looked away quickly and Scully probably hadn't realized anything, but Mulder left the office with a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach and the certainty that he would need his whole strength to concentrate on anything for the rest of the day.


End file.
